“A man,” wrote the poet Shelley, “to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another.”
The novel, if well-achieved, is the form offering the greatest opportunity to experience the world through another's eyes, to escape the self by shifting perspective; a novelist could perhaps be defined as a person able to see his home as freshly as a foreigner would, someone unable to take anything for granted. This is Saud Alsanousi's successful conceit in The Bamboo Stalk – a plea for tolerance that won the prestigious International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2013 – a text supposedly translated from Filipino to Arabic, now really (and wonderfully) translated to English by Jonathan Wright.
When he’s in Manila, our narrator is called José, and sometimes “the Arab”. In Kuwait, he’s called Isa, and sometimes “the Filipino”. José/Isa is the product of a brief marriage between a migrant housemaid and a Kuwaiti of good family. He looks Filipino but has his father’s voice. It’s to him that the title refers – “a bamboo plant, which doesn’t belong anywhere in particular … the stalk will grow new roots if replanted”.
So Alsanousi, with great wit and lightness of touch, portrays the inner dynamics of not one but two families, and of at least two cultures. Half the book takes place in the Philippines, a tropical and entirely credible setting, redolent of mangoes and diesel fumes. Among the vividly drawn characters are a roguish, broken grandfather and Isa’s mixed-race cousin Merla, who has good reason to resent both men and Europeans. She looks to an unconventional love for solace, as well as to the “purely Filipino religion” of Rizalism, a deification of independence hero José Rizal.
This inquiry into religion is one of the novel’s main themes. Isa’s mother believes everything happens for a reason. Isa is more sceptical. “Resorting to faith,” he dryly observes, “by its very nature, requires faith.” But he has plenty himself, and it thrives on varied food – in a Buddhist temple, through his aunt’s Catholicism, or in a felt, not learnt, appreciation of Islam. All this is handled subtly and generously, culminating in a Sufic focus on the heart.
Isa’s father was killed during the Iraqi occupation, but his promise – to bring his son back to Kuwait – is fulfilled nevertheless. Kuwait was the dream of Isa’s Filipino childhood. Transplanted now in his father’s home, he puts down roots in a precarious space, somewhere between his relatives and the domestic servants. For his Kuwaiti family, class and racial prejudices make Isa more of a dilemma, and a potential source of shame, than a celebrated long-lost son. Another, equally memorable character set plays out the drama of gossip and suspicion – the human rights activist aunt, the good-hearted half-sister, a grandmother whose cantankerous style matches the Filipino grandfather.
Through Isa’s eyes we interrogate all manner of social peculiarity, from Sunni-Shia differences to the casual use of English in Arab conversation. Isa is privileged and cursed to hear from all perspectives, including the servant class, treated “as if we have no feelings and don’t understand anything”.
It makes for funny as well as uncomfortable reading. It’s a measure of its success that, despite the honest analysis of their faults, the reader feels great sympathy for the Kuwaitis, who are never anything worse than victims of a social system. And there’s a great deal in them to love – the “craziness” that Isa adores, their clapping and dancing, the warm solidarity of their diwaniya gatherings. Alsanousi is keen to stress Kuwaiti as much as Filipino diversity, the enormous physical and cultural range even in a country that can be crossed in half an hour. And the text is playful enough, sufficiently confident, to turn such tricks as a walk-on role for Ismail Fahd Ismail, the real-life father of the Kuwaiti novel.
If The Bamboo Stalk is an inquiry into personal, national and spiritual identity, it's a coming-of-age novel too. As such, it depicts its protagonist's journey towards a mature self-knowledge. And as surely as José/Isa achieves this, so too does Kuwait, and the Arabian Gulf in general, through Alsanousi's writing. The multicultural but semi-segregated Gulf has long constituted a cosmopolis in denial. Now, in this truly cosmopolitan and deeply humane novel, it has found a voice and a mirror.
This line describes Isa’s father, but it applies equally to Saud Alsanousi: “He wanted to change reality with a novel that was candid and harsh, but his only motive was love.”
Robin Yassin-Kassab is the author of the novel The Road From Damascus. He is writing a book with Leila Al Shami on the Syrian revolution.
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Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue
Director: M Night Shyamalan
Rating: 3/5
Water waste
In the UAE’s arid climate, small shrubs, bushes and flower beds usually require about six litres of water per square metre, daily. That increases to 12 litres per square metre a day for small trees, and 300 litres for palm trees.
Horticulturists suggest the best time for watering is before 8am or after 6pm, when water won't be dried up by the sun.
A global report published by the Water Resources Institute in August, ranked the UAE 10th out of 164 nations where water supplies are most stretched.
The Emirates is the world’s third largest per capita water consumer after the US and Canada.
What is graphene?
Graphene is extracted from graphite and is made up of pure carbon.
It is 200 times more resistant than steel and five times lighter than aluminum.
It conducts electricity better than any other material at room temperature.
It is thought that graphene could boost the useful life of batteries by 10 per cent.
Graphene can also detect cancer cells in the early stages of the disease.
The material was first discovered when Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were 'playing' with graphite at the University of Manchester in 2004.
Ziina users can donate to relief efforts in Beirut
Ziina users will be able to use the app to help relief efforts in Beirut, which has been left reeling after an August blast caused an estimated $15 billion in damage and left thousands homeless. Ziina has partnered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to raise money for the Lebanese capital, co-founder Faisal Toukan says. “As of October 1, the UNHCR has the first certified badge on Ziina and is automatically part of user's top friends' list during this campaign. Users can now donate any amount to the Beirut relief with two clicks. The money raised will go towards rebuilding houses for the families that were impacted by the explosion.”
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The specs
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Power: 310hp
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On sale: Now
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Specs
Engine: 2-litre
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 255hp
Torque: 273Nm
Price: Dh240,000
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
THE BIO:
Sabri Razouk, 74
Athlete and fitness trainer
Married, father of six
Favourite exercise: Bench press
Must-eat weekly meal: Steak with beans, carrots, broccoli, crust and corn
Power drink: A glass of yoghurt
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How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
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